UNCONFINED COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH OF DOLIME FINE STABILIZED DIESEL CONTAMINATED EXPANSIVE SOIL

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International Journal of Civil Engineering and Technology (IJCIET) Volume 8, Issue 1, January 2017, pp. 01–08, Article ID: IJCIET_08_01_001

Available online at http://www.iaeme.com/IJCIET/issues.asp?JType=IJCIET&VType=8&IType=1

ISSN Print: 0976-6308 and ISSN Online: 0976-6316

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UNCONFINED COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH OF

DOLIME FINE STABILIZED DIESEL CONTAMINATED

EXPANSIVE SOIL

Akshaya Kumar Sabat

Associate Professor, Department of Civil Engineering,

Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan University, Bhubaneswar, India

Swapnaranee Mohanta

Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering,

Gandhi Institute for Technological Advancement (GITA), Bhubaneswar, India

ABSTRACT

The results of an experimental programme undertaken with an expansive soil artificially

contaminated with diesel, and stabilized with dolime fine to find its, Unconfined compressive

strength (UCS) at 0,7 and 28 days of curing have been discussed in this paper. UCS of the

expansive soil decreased by 58.14% when contaminated with 9% diesel. After stabilization with

dolime fine, the UCS value increased. There was 747.22% increase in UCS as compared to the

UCS of 9% diesel contaminated expansive soil and 254.65% increase in UCS as compared to the

UCS of uncontaminated expansive soil when stabilized with 9% dolime fine and cured for 28 days.

Key words: Expansive Soil, Diesel, Dolime Fine, Unconfined Compressive Strength.

Cite this Article: Akshaya Kumar Sabat and Swapnaranee Mohanta, Unconfined Compressive

Strength of Dolime Fine Stabilized Diesel Contaminated Expansive Soil. International Journal of

Civil Engineering and Technology, 8(1), 2017, pp. 01–08.

http://www.iaeme.com/IJCIET/issues.asp?JType=IJCIET&VType=8&IType=1

1. INFORMATION

Expansive soil is a type of clayey soil having montmorillonite mineral which expands significantly when

comes in contact with water and shrinks when water dries out. The strength of this type of soil is very low

and this alternate swell-shrink behaviour damages the lightly loaded structures, which are constructed over

it. It is treated as a problematic soil for construction (Nelson and Miller 1992, Gourley et al. 1993, Rao et

al.2007, Sabat and Pati 2014) [9,3,13,19]. There are many ways this soil can be contaminated such as

infiltration of contaminated surface water, discharge of industrial waste in to the soil, rupture of

underground storage tanks, and seepage from a landfill and, leakage from underground pipe lines and

septic tanks etc. Contamination adversely affects the engineering properties of soil which lead to several

problems like loss in strength, differential settlement and cracks in existing foundation or structure etc.

Contamination increases the problems for construction on expansive soil, which itself without

contamination is also a problematic soil.

Akshaya Kumar Sabat and Swapnaranee Mohanta


One of the contaminants of soil is diesel. Diesel in different ways like, leakage from the automobiles

moving on the roads, from the rupture of diesel storage tanks, or from the automobile garages during repair

and maintenance work of the automobiles, comes in contact with soil and contaminates it. The effects of

contamination of black cotton soil by diesel was studied by Pusadkar and Bharambe (2014) [12] and had

found a decrease in maximum dry density(MDD), optimum moisture content (OMC) and unsoaked

California bearing ratio (CBR) of the soil along with change in other properties. The effect of diesel on a

non expansive clayey soil was also studied by Pradeepan et al. (2016) [11] and decrease in OMC, MDD

and unconfined compressive strength (UCS) were observed.

Stabilization is one of the techniques (Cokca 2001; Kalkan and Akbulut 2004; Sabat and Das 2009;

Ogbonnaya and Illoabachie 2011; Sabat and Nanda 2011; Moses and Saminu 2012; Sabat 2012; Mir and

Sridharan 2013; Sabat 2013;Sabat and Pradhan 2014; Ashango and Patra 2014 ; Sabat and Nayak 2015;

Kulkarni et al.2016; Sabat and Mohanta 2016) [2,5,14,10,15,8,16,7,17,18,1,21,6,22] to improve the

geotechnical properties of expansive soil. Stabilization technique can be adopted to improve the

geotechnical properties of contaminated expansive soil.

Dolomite chips are required for different industrial processes, which is obtained by crushing dolomite

stones, during crushing a solid waste is produced it is called as dolime fine (Sabat and Mohanta 2015) [20].

It has very high percentage of CaO. Dolime fine has been recommended by IRC: 88-1984, [4] as a binding

agent that can replace pure lime (Shahu et al. 2013), [23]. Dolime fines can be utilized to stabilize

contaminated expansive soil.

The objective of this paper is to investigate the effect of dolime fine on UCS of an expansive soil

artificially contaminated with diesel, at 0, 7 and 28days of curing.

2. MATERIALS AND METHODS

2.1. Material

The materials used in the testing programme are Expansive soil, Diesel, and Dolime fine.

2.1.1. Expansive Soil

The Geotechnical Properties of expansive soil are: Particle size analysis :i)Sand size- 12%, ii)Silt size -

24% iii)Clay size- 64%, Specific gravity:-2.67, Atterberg’s Limits: i)Liquid Limit -61%, ii)Plastic Limit-

29%, ii)Plasticity Index- 32%,Compaction Properties :i) OMC - 22%, ii)MDD-16.1 kN/m3,UCS:- 86

kN/m2

2.1.2. Diesel

Diesel used in the experimental programme was purchased from the local market.

2.1.3. Dolime Fine

Dolime fines used in the experimental programme were obtained, by crushing dolomite chips and those

passed in 425 micron IS sieve were used in experimental programme.

2.2. Methods

Diesel was added to the expansive soil at 0,3,6.and 9% by dry weight of the soil, mixed properly and

stored in an air tight container for 7 days. After that standard Proctor compaction test was conducted on

diesel contaminated expansive soil to get OMC and MDD. Samples of UCS were prepared by compacting

it at its OMC and MDD. The worst effect of contamination in terms of maximum reduction in UCS were

found out which occurred at 9% addition of diesel. After that dolime fine was added to soil contaminated

with 9% diesel, at 0,3,6 and 9% by dry weight of diesel contaminated expansive soil, by replacement of

diesel contaminated expansive soil with dolime fine. Standard Proctor compaction tests, and UCS tests at

0,7 and 28days of curing were conducted on dolime fine stabilized diesel contaminated expansive soil

Unconfined Compressive Strength of Dolime Fine Stabilized Diesel Contaminated Expansive Soil


samples. Samples of UCS were prepared by compacting it at its OMC and MDD. The procedures as given

in Indian standard Codes were followed to conduct these tests.

3. ANALYSIS OF TEST RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

0 3 6 9

13.5

14.0

14.5

15.0

15.5

16.0

16.5

MD

D(k

N/m

3 )

Diesel(%)

Figure 1 Effect of Diesel on MDD of Expansive soil

0 3 6 9

10

12

14

16

18

20

22

24

OM

C(%

)

Diesel(%)

Figure 2 Effect of Diesel on OMC of Expansive soil

The effects of diesel contamination on MDD and OMC of the expansive have been shown in Fig.1 and

Fig. 2 respectively. Both OMC and MDD decreased with increase in diesel addition. Similar observations

were also made by Pusadkar and Bharambe (2014) [12] while adding diesel to a black cotton oil and

Pradeepan et al. (2016) [11] while adding diesel to a non expansive clayey soil.



0 3 6 9

30

35

40

45

50

55

60

65

70

75

80

85

90

UC

S(k

N/m

2)

Diesel(%)

Figure 3 Effect of Diesel on UCS of Expansive soil

The effect of diesel contamination on UCS of expansive soil has been shown in Fig.3.With increase in

diesel contamination the UCS value decreased. The UCS decreased to 36 kN/m2 from 86 kN/m

2 with

increase of diesel from 0 to 9%, a decrease of 58.14 % with addition 9% diesel. A reduction in unsoaked

CBR value was found by Pusadkar and Bharambe (2014) [12] while adding diesel to a black cotton oil

and a reduction in UCS was found out by Pradeepan et al. (2016)[11] while adding diesel to a non

expansive clayey soil.

0 3 6 9

12.4

12.6

12.8

13.0

13.2

13.4

13.6

13.8

14.0

MD

D(k

N/m

3 )

Dolime fine(%)

Figure 4 Effect of Dolime fine on MDD of Diesel contaminated Expansive soil

The effect of dolime fine on MDD of diesel contaminated expansive soil has been shown in Fig.4.The

MDD decreased with increase in addition of dolime fine.



0 3 6 9

11.5

12.0

12.5

13.0

13.5

14.0

14.5

15.0

15.5

16.0

OM

C(%

)

Dolime fine(%)

Figure 5 Effect of Dolime fine on OMC of Diesel contaminated Expansive soil

The effect of dolime fine on OMC of diesel contaminated expansive soil has been shown in Fig.5. The

OMC increased with increase in addition of dolime fine

.

0 3 6 9

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

UC

S(k

N/m

2)

Dolime fine(%)

0 Day

7 Days

28 Days

Figure 6 Effect of Dolime fine on UCS of Diesel contaminated Expansive soil

The effect of dolime fine on UCS of diesel contaminated expansive soil at, 0,7 and 28 days of curing

has been shown in Fig.6.The UCS increased with increase in addition of dolime fine and curing period.

The UCS increased to 305 kN/m2 from 36 kN/m

2 at 28 days of curing and 9% dolime fine addition.



0 7 14 21 28

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

UC

S(k

N/m

2)

Curing Period(Days)

Figure 7 Effect of Curing Period on UCS of Dolime fine (9%) stabilized Diesel contaminated Expansive soil

Effect of curing period on UCS of dolime fine (9%) stabilized diesel contaminated expansive soil has

been shown in Fig.8. The UCS increased to 305kN/m2 from 50 kN/m

2 when the curing period increased to

28 days from 0-day.

0 7 14 21 28

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

Per

cen

tag

e in

crea

se i

n U

CS

Curing Period(Days)

Figure 8 Variation of percentage increase in UCS of Dolime fine (9%) stabilized Diesel contaminated Expansive

soil as compared to UCS of Diesel contaminated Expansive soil with curing period

Fig.8 shows the variation of percentage increase in UCS of dolime fine ( 9%) stabilized diesel

contaminated expansive soil as compared to UCS of diesel contaminated expansive soil with curing period.

The percentage increase in UCS increased to 747.22% from 38.88% when the curing period increased to

28 days from 0 day, as compared diesel contaminated expansive soil. At 28 days curing period the

percentage increase in UCS value as compared to the UCS value of uncontaminated expansive soil is

254.65% .



4. CONCLUSION

The UCS of the expansive soil decreased 58.14% by contamination with 9% diesel. The UCS of the

expansive soil which was decreased due to contamination was not only regained by stabilization with 9%

dolime fine but also increased by 747.22% at 28 days of curing period, as compared to the UCS of 9%

diesel contaminated expansive soil and 254.65% increase in UCS as compared to the UCS of

uncontaminated expansive soil.

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